Starting an Animal Survey: Winter Birds and Friends

Watching Our Birds, All Year Long

We love to watch our birds. With each season, we change our offerings to suit the birds that come with that season: suet for the woodpeckers in the winter; berries and peanuts for the bluebirds in the spring; oranges for the orioles in June; hummingbird nectar for the hummers in July.

It is exciting to see those birds (and other creatures) that signal changes in the seasons. To chronicle the visitors in our yard, we started a year-long animal survey to usher in 2013.

Our survey sheet -- good for a year of viewing! (c) Kim M. Bennett, 2012

We put together an animal survey sheet, where we can list the visitors to our bird feeders, brush pile and water sources, then check off which months we have observed them. To mark shifts in populations, we are entering a number to show the greatest number of each species observed at any given time (similar to what is done to measure relative quantities of birds in Cornell's Project Feeder Watch).

(Click on link to download a copy for your own study.)

The First Week of Our Survey

The first week of January was a busy one. Here is our list of animal visitors (not counting our own pets, of course -- wild animals, only!), in decreasing order of their abundance (NOTE: We noted the maximum number of each animal that was seen at a given time, to monitor the relative abundance of the species for each month):

Dark-eyed juncos were our most abundant visitors this week.

• Dark-eyed junco (7)
• Black-capped chickadee (6)
• Tufted titmouse (4)
• White-tailed deer (4)
• White-throat sparrow (4)
• Blue jay (2)
• Great horned owl (2)
• Mourning dove (2)
• Carolina wren (2)
• Northern cardinal (2)
• Chipping sparrow (2)
• Gray squirrel (2)
• White-breasted nuthatch (1)
• Red-bellied woodpecker (1)
• Downy woodpecker (1)
• Northern flicker (1)
• White-crowned sparrow (1)

 

Nifty Sightings for the Week

Click on the link for more information.

I always love having the chickadees perch inches from my nose and scold me when the feeder runs out of seeds. But there were some other noteworthy observations this week:

... the junco with leucism -- partial albinism that caused its head and cheek feathers to be completely white, and its sides to be tan in color {my youngest son and I spent a lot of time trying to identify it with our field guides before I found a web article about this form of albinism};
... the great horned owls who perched in the hickory overlooking the feeding area during the night time hours and into the dawn, hooting and hunting {our cats are not happy about being kept in at night the past few weeks};
... the pair of wrens that we watched exploring the inner depths of a folded camp chair on our front porch (you know they'll nest anywhere). {My eldest son and I sat in the car after going to the gym, so we wouldn't disturb the busy pair}

What We Offered Our Feathered and Furry Friends

Click on the link for more information.

We had run out of black thistle seed, so we had filled both our tube feeder and the regular feeder with mixed seed, and placed some stale pancakes in a suet feeder (as an alternative to putting them on the ground, which attracts our own dog before the outdoor critters get to the food). We bought some berry-flavored suet dough (loved by the titmice), and threw bread crusts out on the ground.

Read-Alouds to Go With Your Studies

Our two favorite animal books, the Burgess Bird Book for Children and the Burgess Animal Book for Children, are shown here. Click on the links in the captions for more information about these wonderful classics.

[This post was linked to the following blog carnivals:]

Outdoor Hour Challenge ~ Winter Bird: Chickadee
Simple Science Strategies:  Patterns
A Carnival of Homeschooling
 

Ten (10) Fall Nature Studies: What the Leaves Have Kept Hidden

Fall sunrise in Connecticut (c) Kim M. Bennett, 2011

We have been enjoying exploring what the leaves of summer have been hiding from us for the past several months. Here are some of the surprises and interesting finds from the past week or so -- each one a potential in-depth study for the next month.

1. Lichens & Mosses

These can be harvested to make terrariums, even in the fall. Interesting questions that can be explored, even in the cold seasons:

• Do mosses really grow more on the north sides of tree trunks?
• What kinds of lichens grow in my area? Where do they grow?
• What is a lichen, exactly?
• How is the life cycle of a moss like that of a seed-bearing plant? How is it different?
• How do mosses and lichens fit in an ecosystem? Are they producers (they are green, after all)? Are they consumers? Are they decomposers?

Barbara McCoy has a great lichen and moss study at the Handbook of Nature Study.

British soldiers lichen (c) Kim M. Bennett, 2012

2. Bark & Vines

Last fall, we took advantage of an unseasonably warm day in early March to take a "bark walk," studying the vines and bark of the trees on the nearby Blue Trail. Either one of these could be a huge study. We ended up focusing on the many faces of the ubiquitous poison ivy on our bark and vine walk.

Poison ivy, or other bark & vines, make a great fall nature study. (c) Kim M. Bennett, 2011

3. Owls

We have been enjoying hearing the owls of Connecticut, right in our backyard, for the past couple of weeks. We are all early risers, so we are serenaded each morning, from about 4:00 a.m. until sunrise, by great horned owls and long-eared owls, and regularly encounter owls silently swooping over the roads when we drive in the evenings.

We use the Apologia Science Exploring Creation series with our youngest son, and found that All About Birds, a web page from Cornell Univerity's Laboratory of Ornithology, makes a great accompaniment to the Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day textbook. Read more about owls, and hear owl calls.

In the November edition of the Simple Science Strategies Newsletter, we feature books in the One Day series, by Jean Craighead George, nature writer and children's author. Here is another novel, with a nature theme, that was always a favorite of my students and my own children, by the same author. Click on the image, for ordering information.

 

 Barnes & Noble, $16.00

4. Buds

When I taught horticulture students at The Ohio State University, we had three plant identification courses: woody trees and shrubs (a fall class), evergreens and winter identification of trees and shrubs (a winter class), and herbaceous plants (a spring class). In the winter, we would revisit previously learned trees and shrubs, only using their habits, twig markings and buds to identify them. Very challenging!

Winter buds can be very colorful, as well. Certain shrubs and trees that bloom very early in the spring can be cut in the late fall and winter, and brought inside to force the blooms open.

Champaign County (Illinois) Cooperative Extension Service has a nifty pocket guide on winter identification of trees and shrubs. The .pdf is full color, and also teaches about leaf and bud arrangement (did you know that there are only a few woody species with an opposite leaf arrangement?).

Colorful buds challenge our identification skills in fall and winter (c) Kim M. Bennett, 2011

5. Fruits and Berries

I love cutting wildflowers to bring inside after our nature hikes. In the fall and winter, I cut branches with fruits and berries, or colorful buds, instead. Last fall, I cut some multiflora rose branches with "hips" (berries), and put them in a vase on the kitchen windowsill. They rooted! No wonder it is an invasive species...

If you are a birder, it is interesting to notice which plants attract birds to your yard in winter. Some plants, like hollies and winterberries, are full of bright red fruits, but the birds only eat them very late in the winter and early in spring, when they absolutely have to. Others, like blueberries, barely get a tinge of blue before they are stripped bare by all kinds of wildlife.

If you decide to study the fruits, download a set of my "Apple a Day" notebooking pages to go along with your study.

Colorful fruits and berries brighten the fall landscape. (c) Kim M. Bennett, 2011

6. Old Birds' Nests

We often suspect that we have nesting birds in the yard, because we see mom and dad and their little ones coming to the feeder in the summer, or we watch adults zipping back and forth with wriggly snacks in their beaks.

In the fall, when the leaves have fallen, we can often spot exactly where the nest was, as its hiding place is revealed. Sometimes, fall and winter weather, such as our recent hurricane, blow nests from their hiding spots, so we can study them up close.

One fall, my older boys collected a series of nests on our screen porch. This is a great nature activity when the outside world seems to be sleeping. A word of caution: do not bring the nests inside, as most wild birds are full of mites, which infest the nest, and are definitely NOT something that you want to wake up from their slumber in your house, as they warm up inside. Consider getting a field guide just about nests, to add to your field guide collection. (I love the Peterson guides... Click on the image for ordering information. )

Barnes & Noble $20

Did you know that...

• Robins use grass and mud to make their nests, but the amount of mud varies with the weather, from nearly all grass if the weather is dry, to full of mud, when things are rainy?
• Great-crested flycatchers almost always include a snakeskin in their nest cavities? (No one really knows why)
• A male Northern oriole starts his nest, a bag of woven grass that hangs high in a tree, and uses the beginnings of the nest to lure a female as a mate?
• Tufted titmouses line their nests with fur, even plucking hair from unsuspecting animals as they go about their daily affairs?
• Hummingbirds make their tiny nests from lichens and spider webs?
• Bald eagles add branches to their massive nests each year, until the sheer weight of the nest, or bad weather, topples it?
• Crows, normally raucous and boisterous, fly silently to their nests, to avoid detection by predators?
• Blue jays like to weave colorful bits of trash and other "finds" into their nests?
• Mourning doves create a disheveled nest from loosely piled twigs and leaves?
• Turkey vultures lay their eggs on a bare rock ledge?
• Towhees create a nest in a leaf-lined depression on the ground?

Our oriole friends hide their nest high in a tree -- Hurricane Sandy blew last year's down for us to study. (c) Kim M. Bennett, 2012.

7. Rock Walls

Living in New England means there are plenty of old rock walls around. The Puritans and other early European settlers found that planting and building anywhere in the Northeast meant dealing with the stones and boulders left by all those glaciers from the Ice Age. They placed these stones, called glacial erratics, in rock walls around their homesteads, where they remain to this day.

Rock walls teach about the settlement, and geology, of New England. (c) Kim M. Bennett, 2011

$16.95, Barnes & Noble

Stone Wall Secrets, by Kristine and Robert Thorson, and illustrated by Gustav Moore, is a beautifully illustrated book that teaches about the geology of New England, and the culture of the ubiquitous stone walls of the area. Author Robert Thorson, a geologist at the University of Connecticut, has been studying the stone walls of New England for decades, learning about the people who built them and the bedrock which created them. It's a great "go-along" for a fall study of stone walls. For more information on this book, click on the image, at left.

8. Mounds and Pits

In September, we learned about the "One Small Square" strategy, a technique for making observations about the plant and animal life, as well as the abiotic factors, in an ecosystem. This strategy can be used to examine the differences between two unique microecosystems: mounds and pits.

Mounds and pits are formed when trees topple over then decay, over time, creating a mound where the exposed root ball once was,  and a pit where it pulled out of the ground. These two areas often have different soil structure, and different plant and animal life. Autumn is a nice time to begin a study of mounds and pits, examining them when only evergreens are growing, and repeating the study on a monthly basis. Consider using the fall and winter months to map out fallen trees or mounds and pits, for future study. Practice using coordinates to map them out.

Mounds and pits form when fallen trees decompose. (c) Kim M. Bennett, 2011

9. Cones

This month, one of our studies involves comparing and contrasting evergreens and deciduous plants. Among the evergreens you will likely encounter in your studies are the cone-bearing plants, or gymnosperms. Cones make for an interesting nature study in the fall, as each type of gymnosperm has a unique type of cone, and the cones, themselves, change over time.

We like to collect pine cones from the white pines in our neighborhood, and make peanut butter and seeds feeders for our bird feeding station -- read about this in "Winter Bird Feeding."

Collect pine cones for autumn decor or making bird feeders. (c) Kim M. Bennett, 2011

10. Animal Tracks

Last week, we had our first snow storm of the season, when Storm Ari dumped 4-12 inches of snow over the state of Connecticut. Enjoying our first snow day, my youngest son and I went outside to re-load the feeding station and clean snow off things in the backyard.

We delighted in looking at the dainty little bird tracks in the snow on the hood of the gas grill, and the scuffle of prints over prints under the feeders.

Muddy ground or snow-covered surfaces provide an opportunity to study animal tracks. Check out "Follow Those Tracks!" for more information about tracks, scats and signs left behind by animals.

Study animal tracks by making plaster casts or taking photographs. (c) Kim M. Bennett, 2010

Share...

These are just some of the many studies we have been drawn to in the fall. We would love to hear about your fall finds, and the things that caught your eye as you explored outdoors this month.  Please make sure that you link up your blog post on the November Simple Science Strategies Blog Carnival.  Add a link to this post and the blog carnival in your blog post, too.

Have a great fall!

Signs of Autumn: Our Trip to the Orchard

[Submitted to the Simple Science Strategies October blog carnival and the Outdoor Hour Challenge blog carnival.]

We're Going to the Orchard!

No autumn is complete without a trip to the local apple orchard. We live near one of the nicest orchards in Connecticut, Buell's Orchard in a little town called Eastford, here in the northeast corner of the state.

Going to the orchard is always a treat. But, like I used to tell my third grader writers, it's better to SHOW the readers than to TELL them!  

(See if you can find all the signs of autumn that we observed... I'll list them at the bottom of this blog post)

Our Trip, in Photos

Rows and rows of trees, waiting to be picked.

The news folks are telling us that the apple crop will be smaller this year, because we had an incredibly mild winter (it really didn't snow, and it felt like early fall temperatures in January), which made lots of plants think that it was spring all winter, and the apples began to break about a month early. Unfortunately, this period was followed by a brief cold snap in April, which zapped many flower buds.

I can't really say that we noticed fewer apples, but, then again, when you're picking for yourself, you're only looking for a bag of them. I'm sure growers are noticing that varieties are running out earlier than they have.

When we went, they were picking Gala, Empire, Cortland and McIntosh. We (of course) had to get some of each.

The morning air had very crisp. so we brought our sweatshirts when we left for the orchard that afternoon.

Grandma enjoys the New England day.

We had an out-of-town visitor, my mom, who flew up from Florida to take care of me while I recuperated from thyroid surgery. This was my first outing after getting a little stir-crazy at home -- it couldn't have been a better one!

My mom doesn't get to pick apples like she did when they still lived in New York, so she specifically asked if we could go when she came up. Apples in the store in the South just aren't like the ones that you pick right off the tree. Heck, apples in the store in CONNECTICUT aren't either!

The temperature was warmer than we expected by afternoon, and we ditched our sweatshirts. We often are surprised by the wind that whips through the orchard, so it's better to be safe and have the sweatshirt, than cold and miserable.

Little Man was determined to pick his own bag.

Going to the orchard is one of our kids' favorite activities. Our oldest son had a soccer game, and the middle son had a social engagement, but the Little Guy is held captive by the fact that he is eight and doesn't drive!

He would have spent the whole day at the orchard. This year, he carried his own bag ("Because I'm a big boy."). An orchard trip is such a great family activity, because a fidgety kid can run up and down the rows (but not too fast, as he has to dodge apples on the ground), and there's free food wherever you go. Sunshine... outside... running... free food... play clothes... It just sounds like the formula for fun for little boys, doesn't it?

He dressed up especially for the occasion, in his favorite clothes: one of our tie-dye shirts from the summer, and his camouflage pants. Gotta love his style.

Want some apple experiments? Click here.

 We had a brief review of the apple-picking process: turn the apple like a doorknob so you don't pull off the branch; check it all around for holes and dents (don't take those); don't worry about the color (because the side facing away from the sun might stay green, even though the apple's quite ripe); fill the bag to the top...

I love the Galas for lunchboxes and snacks -- they are crisp, don't dent in the lunchbox as easily, and you can sometimes find these teeny tiny ones that are so cute and perfect. Just enough sweetness (they don't make your left eye squint, like Granny Smiths do to me! I know you know what I mean...).

The leaves on the Galas were spectacular -- this is what I envision when I see the word, "green."

There's Grandma... but where's the kid going?

On to the next variety: McIntosh. I explained to my son that Macs were good for apple sauce, but not so good for pie, because they turn to mush. I wasn't going to pick any, but I couldn't help myself. Besides, the apples all get mixed together in a "surprise" bag eventually.

One thing I love about orchard apples is they are so fresh, you can leave them out of the fridge and they still stay delicious for weeks. This always happens to me, since I always pick too many for my fridge to hold, and have to leave the bag out. [We made lots of Apple Brown Betty -- check out my recipe.]

It's been too warm to leave the bag outside. Besides, here in the country, there are lots of critters who wouldn't mind having a snack on the back patio, if we left them out.

I love farm life...

On the way to the Macs, we passed the garage where they kept the tractors. This one had been freshly hosed down, so we spent some time gazing at it. My eldest was a tractor expert as a preschooler, and had an incredible collection of Matchbox-style farm equipment. He could name all the brands, by sight: John Deere (this one), Farm-all, Caterpillar, Kubota...

The Little Guy was more interested in being independent, so we sent him back for four more Macs to fill up one of the bags. We gave him a brief on how to pick the best ones, and sent him off. He likes being asked to do jobs like that.

The pumpkin fields were just starting to be picked when we were there. I'm sure that pumpkin picking is in full force now. We told the child it was too early for a pumpkin. But I think a pie is calling me now...

Lots of bloom on this Empire.

As we looked over the apples, we noticed the differences in the varieties. The Galas had "feet" like Delicious varieties do, and a deeper red color (although not nearly as deep as Red Delicious), and the skin was a little tougher than the others (but not as tough as Red Delicious, again). The Macs were cute and almost totally round, and had more green on them. The Empires had the waxy bloom that rubs off on your shirt (love shining up an apple...). And the Cortlands were the biggest of all ("This one is HUGE!" exclaimed the boy.)

So is a Cortland as good as a Granny Smith?

We headed down the road to the orchard with the Empires and Cortlands. Empires are an in-between apple -- multi-purpose. My son was looking for his favorite Granny Smiths, but those are a later variety, and they weren't ready yet. I showed him the Cortlands, which are a good pie pumpkin, and explained to him that even though apple pie was sweet, you needed a tarter apple in order for it to taste just right. So he tried one, and declared it delicious (although Grannys are still his favorite).

I think that's so funny how little kids love Granny Smiths, which I find to be so sour, and they're not red. I wonder what it is?

I know that last year, when we were picking pumpkins, I let Little Man choose his, and he selected a cute green and white one. Not an orange one. Kids are funny.

You might have seen the photo to the right, on my "Favorite Photo Friday" post last week.

Crates ready for apple shipping.

There is something so "New England" about an orchard.

I took this photo of the storage facility, and when I looked at the photos back at home, I was struck by how much this resembles shots I have taken at the lobster docks in Maine. If you just glance at the photo, it looks like a big stack of lobster pots, doesn't it?

Whenever I think about moving elsewhere, I should look at this photo...

One more pass by the Macs before we hit the country store...

With our bags full (and already paid for), we loaded our apples in the car and headed to the store, to check out the fresh vegetables (I resisted the temptation to buy a Rubbermaid tub full of Japanese china that a gentleman was selling at a tag sale along the road -- I love dishes, and that can get out of control if I am not strong! I was...)

At the store, we bought fresh corn (FRESH FRESH corn), Italian frying peppers, orange and black bell peppers, and two "personal size" melons. Mmmm... We put the peppers to good use when we got home...

One more for the road...

Last fall, Little Man asked why orchard apples taste so good. I explained where we get apples here in Connecticut: fall are local, and tasty, winter are storage from here (not as tasty), spring are shipped from South America, where it is fall, and summer are storage from South America. I explained that stored apples lose some of the sweetness, and become a little softer and mealy. When apples come right off the tree, they are at their best.

He blinked at me as if I told him too much. So I summed it up: "Apples fresh off the tree still have the sunshine in them."

Do you know that is what he has remembered that all year? I love kids...



I am glad they don't weigh kids before and after they go to the orchard. Little Guy remembered that, last year, when he ate one of each variety (four then) he had a stomach ache. So he limited himself to three this time.

What Signs of Autumn Did We See?

Changes in the Weather

• Chilly mornings and warm afternoons

Changes in Nature

• Pumpkins ready to pick
• Apples turning red
• Apples on the ground

Changes in People

• Jackets and sweatshirts in the mornings, t-shirts in the afternoons 
• People going to pick apples and pumpkins
• People making apple pies
• Vegetable stands selling fresh vegetables
• People visiting New England (for the changing seasons)

Did you find any others?

Updates...

We are almost ready to empty out the first batch of compost from our All Seasons Indoor Composter, and are very excited about bokashi as a compost aid! Stay tuned -- on around 10/15, the compost should be ready, and we will be blogging about our project!

All Seasons Indoor Composter, by UncommonGoods

Puffballs!

I have always loved puffballs.

I don't think there's "too old" to have fun making puffs of "smoke" come out of a puffball. So when I spotted this patch of puffballs growing at the edge of the parking lot, a little childhood thrill went through my heart.

Puffballs, one of my favorite fungi (Photo credit (c) 2012 Kim Bennett)

What's a Puffball?

Puffballs are mushrooms that are shaped like a somewhat round "egg", that release their spores through a pore at the top of the "egg," when mature. They are attached to the ground by mycelium, as are the gilled mushrooms.

Puffballs can be confused with the immature forms of other mushrooms. However, when you slice the mushroom in half, a puffball will just be flesh (if immature, like this giant puffball my little guy whacked open on a nature walk last year [top]), or will be a hollow sphere full of spores (if mature, like the ones in the bottom photo, below).

Immature puffballs have just creamy flesh inside (c) 2010, Kim M. Bennett

Mature puffballs are hollow "shells," with only spores inside. (c) 2012, Kim M. Bennett

In comparison, if you slice open another type of mushroom, the cross-section reveals the shape of the mushroom-to-come:

In this photo, you can see the "buds" of a new crop of stinkhorns, alongside one that is emerging. You can see that the "shell" is a leathery or papery sheath that encapsulates the stem and head of the stinkhorn (see the remnants of the shell in the stinkhorn to the left). What you can't see in the photo is that the shell is also full of a nasty gel -- not easily confused with the contents of the immature puffball, above.

Stinkhorn "eggs," in cross-section, reveal the stinkhorn within, encased in a gelatinous matrix. (c) 2011 Kim M. Bennett

Gilled mushrooms, as well, reveal the upcoming mushroom in cross-section, as an "outline" of the major veins of the fruiting body. The Mushroom Expert has a great photo of a poisonous Amanita in cross-section, showing the outline of the mushroom within the egg.

Why Call Them "Puffballs?"

Puffballs do not have gills -- they don't look like "toadstools" with a stem and a cap. In contrast, their spores develop inside the capsule of the puffball. When mature, it takes only a puff of wind, the tread of a creature, or (better yet) the taps of raindrops to release the spores into the air, emerging from the pore at the top.

Of course, little boys (and their moms) can also help...

(c) 2012, Kim M. Bennett

(c) 2012, Kim M. Bennett

(c) 2010, Kim M. Bennett

Studying Puffballs

Puffballs make a great study for "One Small Square" activities, as there's a lot going on in a small area (check out the photos, above). Because they develop quickly, you can revisit the same spot quickly, over the course of a couple of weeks, and see things changing (good for working with little ones who need quicker change). Our crop of puffballs emerged and matured within a few weeks' time. Even after they matured, the shells of the puffballs remained for a long time, and were fascinating to my 8-yr-old, who always managed to get a few more spores out of them!

[Submitted to the Simple Science Strategies September Blog Carnival, and the Outdoor Hour Challenge September Blog Carnival]

Stay Tuned...

My All-Season Indoors Kitchen Composter (fueled with bokashi) arrived! Stay tuned for a review of this product (from UncommonGoods) in a couple of weeks (I'm very excited -- anything to stretch the gardening theme into the fall and winter...).

The All-Seasons Indoor Composter, $48 from UncommonGoods

Nadene at Practical Pages shares a hollow log indoor garden, complete with little honey mushrooms, that one of her children created for a homeschool learning project -- see it at "Freedom Homeschool Brings."

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The "One Small Square" Strategy: Mushrooms and Other "Fun Guys"

Mushrooms love the woodchips in my flower bed.

[Edited and re-blogged from "A Child's Garden," September 2011]

We originally completed this study last fall, but are re-posting this for the September Simple Science Strategies newsletter, because it made good use of the "One Small Square" Strategy, the focus strategy for Week 3 of the September Newsletter, and focused on mushrooms, the topic for Week 2!


We sure have had some wild weather here in New England at the end of the Summer of 2011. We have had so much rain that the crop of mushrooms sprouting up everywhere has been very interesting and incredible.

Fall, especially the Back to School time, is always a prime time to go mushroom exploring, with the warm days, cool nights and more frequent rain.  Also be on the look-out for mushroom cousins, the slime molds and actinomycetes, that you probably mistake for their more well-known family members. Here is a mushroom study that you can do for September.

Before You Go Outside:

Tiny shelf fungi on a dead tree, Fenton-Ruby Park and Preserve.




• Read up on mushrooms. The Handbook of Nature Study has a very thorough discussion of many of the types of fungi that you might see on an expedition, on pages 714-727. If you read a little further, you can learn about their indoor cousins, the bread molds (pp. 727-728).
• The Handbook of Nature Study website has an Autumn Outdoor Hour Challenge on Mushrooms that has excellent links to videos, notebooking pages and other resources.
• Gather materials you might need for a mushroom study: clipboards and pencils, hand lenses, a long plant tag or flag to mark your mushroom spot, plastic food service gloves.
• Read Outdoor Hour Challenge #9: One Small Square for a description of how to carry out the observation activity. 
• Prepare observation sheets for each child. 
• Review routines: "How to Work With a Partner."
• Teach safety rules about potentially poisonous plants.

Honey mushrooms in a shady flower bed.

Observing Mushrooms and Their Cousins:

A mushroom study lends itself well to a multiple-day observation, since the fruiting body of most fungi only remains for a few days, and changes considerably with time and the weather.

Step 1: Note the location of some fungi on a nature walk.

Some places to look include wood chipped areas of a school flower garden or playground, rotting logs, tree stumps, and places where a tree once stood. At this time of year, a whole crop can pop up literally overnight, so don't be discouraged if you don't see any on a particular day.

Be on the lookout for the little "buttons" of some mushrooms that look like tan bumps before they sprout up the next day.

Step 2: Use the One Small Square technique to sketch what you observe.


Step 3: Mark the location with a stick or "flag" so you can find it the next day.

Step 4: Return to sketch changes for the next few days, until the mushroom collapses.

Mushrooms change very quickly from day to day, which is exciting for kids. Note the weather each time you observe (that day's as well as the weather from previous days). These observation forms have a place to record the weather.

Each day you observe, ask the students some questions:

• How did your mushroom change? Why do you think this happened?
• What was the weather like the day before? How might that have affected the mushroom?
• What type of weather do mushrooms prefer? If you don't know, how can you find out?
• Where are the mushrooms growing? What is the ground like there? Are there any trees around? 
• Do you see any insects around the mushroom? What are they doing?
• Does your mushroom have a smell? (Make sure that children don't handle the mushrooms without wearing gloves, because some poisonous mushrooms resemble harmless ones.)

Classroom Follow-up: 

Study the Anatomy of a Mushroom --

• Enchanted Learning has a diagram of a gilled mushroom that students can label, to learn the anatomy of one type of mushroom.
• The Mushroom Lady has a pile of activities that will get your kids really studying mushrooms in-depth.

 Learn About Mushroom Relatives --

• Here is a handy sheet of terms that you might want to study, so that you correctly distinguish between fungi, actinomycetes, slime molds and other fungus-like organisms.

Study Edible Mushrooms (and Eat Them!) --

• Create a mushroom study station with stereoscopes and various edible mushrooms from your grocer's produce department: shiitake, oyster, portabella, white button, straw, crimini...

Fairy Rings, Faerie Houses and Other Literacy Connections --

• Study the folklore surrounding fairy rings and faerie houses.
• Build a faerie house (or two or 10...) along your school nature trail or in your backyard garden.

Faeries and other woodland creatures -- literacy connection!

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September Study 3: Ants,Termites and Ant Lions

Originally published 2011. Edited and republished for the Simple Science Strategies Blog Carnival, September 2012.

 

Fall is a time when lots of creatures begin to make preparations for the winter, while the weather is still warm and food is abundant. It's a good time to observe insects, especially social insects, like ants and bees, who get busy in the fall preparing their colonies for colder weather.

Every fall and spring, there is a line of black ants that passes through our kitchen, from some distinct point outside, to some distinct point somewhere on the other side of the house. They annoy us for a couple of days, then they disappear as quickly as they arrived. Similarly, about this time of year, we witness a parade of citronella ants moving from point A to point B in the yard, leaving their tell-tale orange-y odor behind them


Ants are an easy creature to study using the One Small Square strategy for observation.


Before You Go Outside

• Read up on ants in the Handbook of Nature Study (pp. 369-378).
• Gather materials you might need for your outdoor studies: hand lenses, string or something else to mark your square, clipboards, a few crackers (one per pair of students), the observation sheet of your choice (see below).
• Read One Small Square: Practice Looking Closely at the World and Outdoor Hour Challenge #9: One Small Square for a description of how to carry out the observation activity. 
• Prepare observation sheets for each student.
• Teach students how to work with a partner.
• Review the five senses.
• Find a place that is out of the way where you can set up your observation area. I used to use the sandy area at the edge of the blacktop on the playground as my ant observation area. The area should be large enough to accommodate enough "squares" for all the pairs of students in your class. If it makes it easier for the custodians, mark out the area with stakes and "flags" so it doesn't get disturbed.

The One Small Square Strategy

• Pair up your students. Think about roles -- do you want all students to sketch and record, or do you want one student to take the job as recorder?
• Take the students outside and let them choose a "square" as their study area. (If it makes it easier, pre-mark the squares). Guide students to select an area where there are signs of ant activity. 

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Five-day study:


Day 1:

1. Use a journal page with a large space for illustration. Draw the ant hill in your square. 
2. Where are the ants? Which direction are they heading? Watch what they do when they meet one another. Do they appear to interact with one another? How? What are the ants doing as they move about?
3. How many ants do you think live in the ant hill?
4. What do you think their home looks like below ground?
5. Write some observations in your nature journal.

Day 2:

1. Use a lined journal page with a small space for illustration today. Find one ant. Draw it in the small square. 
2. Watch what your ant does. Try to make a note every minute or two minutes (you'll have to practice writing notes, not full sentences). 
3. During this time, your partner should watch a different ant, recording what that ant does.
4. Do the ants appear to have jobs? Do all the ants do the same activities? Compare your observations to your partner's. Did your ants do the same things?

 Day 3:

1. Use a journal page with a half-page for illustration, and half-page with lines. Take a cracker with you when you observe your ant hill.
2. Place some cracker crumbs where the ants are active, but a few inches away from the entrance to the ant hill.
3. How long does it take for the ants to find the cracker crumbs? What does the first ant do? What happens next? Do other ants come? How do they know to go there? Where do they take the cracker crumbs?
4. What do you think they use the cracker crumbs for? Why do you think this?

 Day 4:

1. Use a journal page with space for two illustrations. Label one "before" and one "after."
2. Draw your ant hill as it looks today. Make sure to note where ants are located, also.
3. Now, carefully cover the entrance to the hole in the ant hill, by brushing the sand into the hole.
4. Watch how the ants respond to this. What do they do? Do they become more active? Do they run away? Do they unblock the hole? Talk to your partner about what you see.
5. About 5 minutes before your observation is finished, draw the way the ant hill looks. Did the ants unblock the entrance? Did they create a new one? Did they work together? How did they cooperate? Why do you think ants behave this way?

Day 5:

1. Use a journal page like the one you used the first day. Go outside to observe your ant hill when the weather is very different from the first day (for example, after a rainstorm, or on a cold day, or a very hot day).
2. Draw what you see. Does the ant hill look different? Why or why not? Are the ants doing the same things as the other days? If they aren't, why not?
3. Can you make an inference about the relationship between activities of ants and weather? 

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Follow-up Activities in the Classroom:

Termites

Learn More About Social Insects

• Use the library and the Internet to learn more about social insects, such as honeybees, ants and termites.
• Global Newt has online games that teach about social insects, using a termite mound, bee hive and ant hill as the settings for the game.
• Record your research on this research worksheet

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Ant lion pit

Look for Ant Lions

Ant lion (doodlebug). (c) Scott Robinson, 2005 via Creative Commons.

• If your ant hills are in sandy soil, look for evidence of an interesting predator, the ant lion. While ants are difficult to keep in the classroom, ant lions make very engaging classroom "pets" that are easy to care for. See my article on ant lions in Science Skills: Making Observations and Asking Questions Like a Scientist . 

• Read more about ant lions in the Handbook of Nature Study, pp. 354-356.

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Identify Your Ants

• Use a field guide to insects, or check out a website, such as Pest World for Kids, for photos of common ant species in your area. 
• Compare ants and termites with a side by side visual comparison.  

Citronella ants smell like citronella candles when disturbed. (c) A Child's Garden, 2010.

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 Literacy and Math Connections

• Ants notebooking pages by Jimmie's Collage
• Ants lapbooks and mini-books to add to your notebook by Homeschool Share
• Two Bad Ants, by Chris Van Allsburg; teacher's guide
• "The Ants Go Marching,"traditional song; also check out a fun multiplication game by the same name
• "The Ant," poem by Oliver Herford
• Ant mazes
• -ant family word slides for your word study center

Will you help me out? 

Please click on the link below to answer a short, 8-question survey about your experience on my blog. No ads! Just information for me. Thanks so much!

Take the October 2012 Reader Survey  now.